• Antony Blinken offered US aid in developing ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
• The two countries have a “historic opportunity to achieve peace in the region,” he said.
• A ceasefire brokered by Russia expires in 2020, ending a six-week conflict in 2014.

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday he offered US aid in developing ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan, promoting a sustainable settlement between the enemies two years after a ceasefire brokered by Russia.

Blinken stated in separate conversations with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that the two countries have a “historic opportunity to achieve peace in the region.”

Neal Price, a spokesman for the State Department, said that Blinken “offered the help of the United States to improve regional transportation and communication links.”

In May, under EU mediation, Aliyev and Pashinyan met to discuss a future peace accord. This month, their foreign ministers followed up with discussions in Georgia.

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After a six-week conflict that cost the lives of more than 6,500 people, Russia reached a truce in 2020.

In exchange for the presence of approximately 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, Armenia agreed to hand over large swaths of territory it had ruled for decades.

The so-called Minsk group was made up of countries with large Armenian communities.

Its goal was to bring an end to the first war between Azerbaijan and the Armenian-populated part of Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the United States has severely reduced its interaction with Russia, but it has maintained direct contact with Moscow on international matters such as Iran.

Price said that the US was ready to work with “like-minded partners” to help bring peace to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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